PART 4. A COMMUNITY OF FAITH • We have much to learn from the early church. • Theirs was a true Community of Faith. • To them, becoming a Christian was not a simple choice. • They had to really count the cost with themselves. • To many people today, becoming a Christian is just a matter of choosing a belief, a religion. • The church today is quite different from the early church. • Today, people would become Christians if it does not cost them too much. • In the early church, people became Christians KNOWING it would cost them everything, even their lives! A. People Not Of This World Matthew 6:24 (NIV) 24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. • They really believed what Jesus said. • They rejected the world's entertainment, honors, and riches. 1 Peter 2:9-12 (NIV) 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. • The early church Christians really believed that they were just passing through this world. • They were not here to maximize their pleasures and comfort. • As a result, they refused to be burdened by life. "They dwell in their own countries as sojourners (people who are only here temporarily)...They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They love all men but are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death, but [will be] restored to life. They are poor, yet they make many rich. They possess few things; yet, they abound in all...And those who hate them are unable to give any reason for their hatred." From an Unknown Author, AD 130 • Because earth was not their home, the early Christians could say like Paul, "to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil 1:21) "Since our thoughts are not fixed on the present, we are not concerned when men put is to death. Death is a debt we must all pay anyway." Justin Martyr, killed for his faith in AD 165 B. People Of Unconditional Love John 13:34-35 (NIV) 34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” • The church took what Jesus said very seriously. • They expected themselves to obey this. E.g. 3rd Century Plague • Pagans were throwing infected members of their own families into the streets even before they died, in order to protect themselves. • Christians were the only ones who cared for the sick at the risk of contracting the plague themselves. E.g. Uncompromising Commitment to Jesus • A pagan actor became a Christian. Realized he had to change employment. Most pagan plays encouraged immorality and pagan idolatry. The theatre even turn boys into homosexuals to play the role of women on stage. Wanted to start acting school, but got advice first. • Leaders told him if acting was an immoral profession, then teaching others would also be wrong. • Leaders wrote to another church leader, Cyprian, for advice. He also agreed. • But he said the church must support him if he had no other means of earning a living - just like orphans, widows, or needy persons. • "If your church is financially unable to support him, he may move over to us and here receive whatever he needs for food and clothing." • Cyprian and his church did not even know this actor. • The love of the early Christians wasn't limited to simply their fellow believers. • Christians also lovingly helped non-believers: the poor, the orphans, the elderly, the sick, the shipwrecked - even their persecutors. Matthew 5:44 (NIV) 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you • The early Christians accepted this statement as a command from Jesus, not just an ideal that cannot actually be practiced in real life. • One Christian puts it this way, "We love one another with mutual love because we do not know how to hate." C. People Of The Cross 1 John 2:4 (NIV) 4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. • To early Christians, to claim to trust God and refuse to obey Him was a contradiction. • "We don't speak great things - we live them!" • They didn't feel they had to understand the reason for a commandment before they would obey it. • They simply trusted that God's way was always the best way. • The ultimate example of their absolute trust in God was their acceptance of persecution. From AD 100-313: • The practice of Christianity was illegal throughout the Roman Empire. • Being a Christian was a crime punishable by death. • Every Christian lived daily with a death sentence hanging over his head. • Christians were willing to suffer unspeakable horrors and to die rather disown their God. • Few, if any, Romans would die for their gods. • Greek word for witness = martyr • While we read "witness" in our Bibles, the early Christians were reading "martyr". "Blessed ones, count whatever is hard in this lot of yours as a discipline of your powers of mind and body. You are about to pass through a noble struggle, in which the living God is your manager and the Holy Spirit is your trainer. The prize is an eternal crown of angelic essence - citizenship in the heavens, glory everlasting." "The prison does the same service for the Christian that the desert did for the prophet...The legs does not feel the chains when the mind is in heaven." Tertullian, Apologist to the Romans, AD 190-210 Polycarp - Disciple of the Apostle John • "You threaten me with mere fire that burns for an hour and then goes out. Haven't you heard of the fire of the coming judgment and of the eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly? Why do you keep delaying? Do whatever you want with me." • "Leave me as I am. The one who gives me strength to endure the fire will also enable me to remain motionless against the stake without having to be secured." • Just before he was burned, as the soldiers were about to nail his limbs to the stake. • Without a doubt, they were People of the Cross.